Is PR equals propaganda?

Most people know that during war, the countries involved in it will influence the public opinion to support their cause. The methods they use are sophisticated campaigns and messages aiming to change the behaviours of a target audience, usually a large number of individuals.

There are many and many examples of propaganda, so many that we could go back to Ancient history and find examples of leaders making use of a basic and rudimentary propaganda. But it was in the last two centuries that human’s mastered propaganda. In yesterday’s class we saw how the U.S. and British government were making use of propaganda in the Iraq war. It is a documentary done by the BBC that explains how they manipulated messages and spin information to convince the population that the war was necessary and it was being successful.

The debate around propaganda and war is especially interesting and can become awfully passionate. However there is another topic equally attractive, PR and propaganda. Many critics refer to PR as a synonym of propaganda. In Le Monde Diplomatic, the American writer Noam Chomsky talks about democratic governments manipulating the media and communication and how they also make use of propaganda. He also states that PR “is a major advance on totalitarian rule, as it is much more agreeable to be subjected to advertising than to torture.”

PR can be used as propaganda but it is not the ethical practice of this profession. PR practitioners want to take their massage across but also they want to understand the public and build relations that can benefit both sides. In this industry, like in any other, there will be “bad” PR practitioners that will manipulate the facts or restrict essential information to the media so a pre-design massage will come across to the public.

In this YouTube video the author and co-founder of PR Watch John Stauber also criticizes PR firms as a multibillion-dollar industry that manipulates the media and masses. Also, how they are trying to expose this PR firms that are manipulating public opinion.

I do not know if people can avoid manipulation and propaganda but an important habit that will help individuals to have a bigger perspective of what is happening is to read different media outlets. Now a day, the Internet is an enormous source of information and points of view that we can get information of the current issues in the world and our country. We cannot be naïve that there are authorities, opinion leaders and organization that will attempt to manipulate public opinion. However, I do believe that there are PR practitioners that work hard to give accurate information, build solid relations between shareholders and carry out an ethical PR practice.